["Papilio nireus Linnaeus, 1758 - mascul"]

Description:

At the needle there is the label of origin from the Carl Wilhelm Schmidt collection and the label of determination of Aristide Caradja. Dr. Paul Rudolf Preuss (1861-1926) was a German explorer, naturalist, botanist and horticulturist, born on December 12, 1861 in Thorn (today Toruń, Poland). After completing his studies, in 1885 (when he supported his license in Berlin), Preuss went to Africa, where he worked in Sierra Leone from 1886-1888. In 1889-1892 he participated in the expedition led by Eugen Zintgraff in western Cameroon. After his return from this expedition, he founded the Limbé Botanical Garden, being the first director of this institution, a position he exercised until 1902. During this period, especially to gather material for the botanical garden, he traveled to the West Indies, Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador. He collected an extremely rich botanical and entomological material, part of which was sent to Kolonialwirtschaftliches Komitee from Berlin. Most of his insect collection came to Staudinger and Bang-Haas, which later sold copies of this collection to both private collectors and institutions (the collection of dipters is currently at the Deutsche Entomologische Institut). In 1902 he dismissed from the management of the Botanical Garden from Limbé, after which he conducted further research trips to Sri Lanka, Java and Papua New Guinea. An important number of plants, but also animals (including a reptile, six bird species and three mammal species) have scientific names reminiscent of this famous naturalist. Carl Wilhelm Schmidt (1859-1924) was an officer in the colonial army stationed in German East Africa. He made insect collections in German East Africa from 1885-1887 (Karsch, 1887). During his stay in Africa, but also after his return to Germany, Schmidt made an impressive collection of African day butterflies. At his death, the collection of Indo-Australian and African Rhopalocers made by him came to the possession of Friedrich Wilhelm Niepelt (1862-1936), a famous insect dealer from Zirlau (today Świebodzice-Ciernie, Lower Silesia, Poland). It is Niepelt who, in the first decades of the last century, sold to Prince Aristide Caradja a large number of African butterflies, among which also slipped copies of Carl Wilhelm Schmidt’s collection.

Format:

image

Collections:

Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History

Content partner:

Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History

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